Alex Oriakhi

SOUTHINGTON – Jim Calhoun acknowledges that the landscape has changed, even in the handful of seasons that he has been out of coaching. "If I'm sitting in that seat today, and I'm thinking I've got to fill some roster spots, I've got to fill them," he said. "You have a chance to get two fifth-year players, both quality players? No brainer." But Calhoun also said the rash of transfers is not good for college basketball, and Central Connecticut coach Howie Dickenman said he feels the same way. "It's an epidemic," Dickenman said. "Transfers are an epidemic. Last year we had 750 kids transfer, and sometimes they...

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SOUTHINGTON – Jim Calhoun acknowledges that the landscape has changed, even in the handful of seasons that he has been out of coaching.
"If I'm sitting in that seat today, and I'm thinking I've got to fill some roster spots, I've got to fill...

The NCAA is the tin can we all love to kick. And don't get me wrong. I have worn out the tips of my holier-than-thou loafers kicking that can.
The NCAA is the piñata we will all love to smash. I have torn oblique muscles swinging my self-righteous...

STORRS — Things had rarely looked so bleak in UConn Nation. The Huskies were ousted from one NCAA Tournament and barred from the next, and players were leaving left and right. Jeremy Lamb and Andre Drummond left for the NBA. Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith and...

STORRS — Every time Kevin Ollie drives by the State Armory on Capitol Avenue in Hartford, he is reminded of the long road he has traveled. Through the Continental Basketball Association, the United States Basketball League and 12 NBAstops, he had to...

The crowd demanded it, and the Huskies did all they could to deliver it. They played their hearts out, leaving it all out on the floor.
In the end, UConn needed one more play to get over the crest. Roscoe Smith's desperation jumper was blocked by C.J....

LOUISVILLE, Ky. &#8212; The smiles that dominated their faces just 48 hours before were long gone, replaced by blank stares, hollow looks of embarrassment.And "embarrassment" was, indeed, the word of the night, following UConn's 80-59...

If Jim Calhoun and his staff wanted to ensure a perfect non-conference record every season, they probably could. UConn could load up with the UMBC's and Stony Brooks of the world and ride a bunch of 25-point victories into the teeth of the Big East...

After a victory at DePaul two days prior, Jim Calhoun rushed to the podium for a quick press conference and then returned to the locker room, where players hastily packed up and started heading for the team bus. The Huskies were eager to get back to...

The Huskies came to the Chicago area figuring they could really get their engine running against DePaul, a less talented team content to try to run and press opponents into the ground. The Huskies had won two in a row and were eager to open up their...

The thrilling victory at Texas was in the rearview. Kemba Walker's game-winner and Roscoe Smith's inexplicable heave were all over ESPN. The Huskies were back in a good place, and back home to face overmatched Rutgers.
The last time the Huskies...

This was one of the most entertaining games in recent UConn history, one you had to watch the highlights of time and again to fully wrap your mind around. It also was a very important victory, a strong statement at a time when UConn was, for the first...

Game 1 of 41: UConn 79, Stony Brook 52, Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Nov. 12, 2010
Coming off a disappointing 2009-10 season that ended in the second round of the NIT, with three key seniors having departed and six (soon to be seven) freshmen joining the...

STORRS — Jim Calhoun was using Charlie Villanueva as a comparison, but the truth is the UConn coach could have inserted the names of hundreds of college basketball players. The difference with Kemba Walker, Calhoun insisted, is he didn't have to learn how...

HOUSTON — In one of those simple, brilliant leads that occasionally grace the sports pages, Courant beat writer Michael Arace sent 17 words back to Connecticut from St. Petersburg, Fla., on March 29, 1999.
"The UConn Huskies won the national...

Somewhere along the line, disbelief was met by something that felt like design, and so in the minutes before midnight Monday at Reliant Stadium, Kemba Walker strolled across the court, kicking up streamers that had fallen from high above, and offered...

The season will end Monday night. The 41st game in this remarkable run will be the last. There is just another two-plus hours, 40 minutes of game time, for the 2010-11 Huskies to scramble around the court with the joy and passion that has defined a...

Every game in this march toward history isn't going to be fine art. Every opponent isn't going to fall to the breathtaking drives of Kemba Walker or the effortless grace of Jeremy Lamb.
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Coaches, players, Cinderellas, old New England turf rivals, they were all at a banquet to honor their Final Four achievement Thursday night when Jim Calhoun decided the time was ripe to play the "My Three Sons" card.
"I said, 'I feel...

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Already, UConn has galvanized a state, captivated the sporting world, pieced together one of the more astonishing runs in college basketball history and even turned their 68-year-old Hall of Fame coach into a kid again.
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